


Prompt 8: Clothes

by emmaknitsalot



Series: Flufftober 2020 [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Alternate Universe - Human, Established Relationship, Flufftober 2020, M/M, Magnus Bane Deserves Nice Things, Prompt Fill, Trans Character, Trans Magnus Bane, nonbinary author
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27054952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emmaknitsalot/pseuds/emmaknitsalot
Summary: "Magnus’ smile fell. 'You aren’t breaking up with me are you?'"Or, Magnus doesn't hide in his clothes anymore and Alec is awkward as usual.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Flufftober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1961794
Comments: 18
Kudos: 194
Collections: Trans-GNC Malec





	Prompt 8: Clothes

**Author's Note:**

> Flufftober 2020 prompts found at vex-bittys dot tumblr dot com.
> 
> Yes I know I'm like, way behind, and not in order, but rules are meant to be broken.
> 
> I took this prompt, ran with it, and chucked it off the wharf.

Clothes had been Magnus’ armour for years, even before he knew what it meant. When he was a child it was tantrums until his father let him wear overalls and rain boots to get covered in the mud outside. When he got to high school and his breasts began to grow, he began to favour baggy t-shirts and shapeless, oversized hoodies, straight leg jeans and combat boots. He used bandages and duct tape to flatten his chest as it got bigger. He chopped his black waist-length braid off in a fit of rage a week before senior prom and hasn’t looked back since. 

(It was over ten years since then and he had done away with the baggy tops and duct tape, though he’d kept the combat boots.)

Today he was getting ready for date night. Alexander sent a text from work saying where they were going tonight was a surprise, but to dress pretty. Magnus smiled to himself as he stood naked in front of the mirror and began to meticulously apply his makeup. Pretty he could definitely do.

He only made up his eyes today, he didn’t feel like wearing much more. He chose a shimmering eyeshadow and black liquid liner. Next, he plucked a few stray dark hairs off his cheeks, leaving his neatly trimmed goatee in place. While he couldn’t grow a whole beard in a day like Alec, he was more than happy with what he could. It was a vast improvement from the patchy bits of fuzz that grew in random places after he had started testosterone. Besides, shaving every day would drive him—and his skin—mad. 

He had just started to style his hair when Alec came up behind him and placed his large warm hands on his hips. 

“Hey sweetheart, you look beautiful,” he said, smoothing his hands up and down Magnus’ waist. 

Magnus laughed. “I haven’t even gotten dressed yet!” 

“Exactly,” said Alec. “Maybe we should stay in tonight and get takeout and just lounge around in our altogether all night.” Alec jutted his chin forward to rest on Magnus’ bare shoulder, his eyes unsubtly trailing up and down Magnus’ body in the mirror. 

“As delightful as that does sound darling,” Magnus said. “Absolutely not. You promised me a nice dinner out and I spent ages on my makeup.” He didn’t really spend ages on it, but Alec didn’t need to know that. He picked up a small glass bottle from the counter. “Since you’re here being a nuisance, make yourself useful and rub a little bit of this on me.”

Alec opened the bottle and the grassy scent of hemp oil wafted out, with a faint undertone of lavender. Alec poured a small amount onto his fingers then reached around to Magnus’ chest and started lightly massaging it into the thin pale scars. “Are they tight today?” Alec asked, adding a little more oil.

“A bit,” Magnus replied. “Or maybe I just like it when you fondle my chest.” It had taken months after he had the surgery to feel comfortable enough to let Alec see, even though Alec was a gentleman from the moment they met until right now in this bathroom. He has never once asked Magnus his deadname. He loved Magnus’ body in all its shapes and sizes, even on the days when Magnus could barely stand to see himself in the mirror. When Magnus finally got the nerve up to wear makeup the first time, he just nodded and said ‘well, makeup doesn’t have a gender’ and offered to take him shopping for supplies. It had taken so long for Magnus to be happy with the way he expressed his gender and Alec had been there every step of the way, supporting him throughout it all, even when he changed his mind and when dysphoric days crept up on him. He may have hidden in his clothes once, but now they were his joy and his creative outlet. 

Alec had finished massaging in the oil and had now reached forward, plastering himself along Magnus’ back to reach the taps to wash his hands.

“Oh Alexander,” Magnus said, with a raised eyebrow. “Is that your phone in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?” He grinned cheekily at Alec in the mirror, leaning back into him. 

Alec grinned back and said, “well I’m always happy to see you, but in this case…” He cleared his throat and looked away.

Magnus’ smile fell. “You aren’t breaking up with me are you?” Magnus knew that that wouldn’t be the case, but sometimes old insecurities liked to rear their ugly heads. He was getting better at telling them to go away though.

“No! No,” Alec was quick to reassure. He pulled his arms back to dry them on his trousers and reach into his pocket. “Quite the opposite, actually.” He pressed a small black box into Magnus’ hand, raising his eyes to look directly into Magnus’ in the mirror. “Go on, open it,” he encouraged.

Magnus narrowed his eyes and popped open the box. Nestled inside was a gorgeous flat silver band inlaid with tiny diamonds all the way around. His mouth dropped open and he stared at it in shock.

Alec pressed a line of kisses along Magnus’ neck. “I was going to do this properly, at the restaurant tonight—we’re going to that tiny Italian place with the lasagne you love and that epic panna cotta with the little bits of caramel toffee?—but I came home and saw you here naked and smiling and like, you’re amazing and I want to spend the rest of my life loving you and, you’re crying? Why are you crying?” He pressed his fingers tight into Magnus’ hips and stared at him in concern.

Magnus was gripping the velvet box and had covered his face with his free hand. “You idiot!” Magnus sobbed. “Put the damn ring on my finger and ask me properly!” He blindly pushed the box at Alec, took a deep breath and wiped the salty tears from his cheeks.

Alec took the ring from its box and wrapped his free arm tight around Magnus’ waist. “Will you be my husband Magnus? Because I want to be yours,” he finally asked, shakily sliding the ring onto Magnus’ left hand. 

Magnus was crying freely now, and he twisted himself around in Alec’s embrace and threw his arms around his neck. “Of course I will,” he said, pressing his face into Alec’s neck. 

“Thank god,” Alec said, letting go of a breath he didn’t even realise he was holding. “I don’t know what I’d have done if you said no.” He wrapped his strong arms tighter around Magnus’ shoulders and smoothed the palm of his hand down his back. 

“I can’t believe you proposed to me while I was naked in the bathroom!”

Alec snorted. “Jace and Izzy had a bet going of course.”

“Of course.”

“Iz said I’d manage to do it as I planned it, but Jace was adamant I’d spill as soon as I got home.” He shrugged. “I guess Izzy’s faith in me was unwarranted.”

“Not unwarranted at all, darling,” Magnus said as they began to sway gently on the spot. “It’s perfect. Very you.”

*

They were sharing the caramel panna cotta and a piece of tiramisu, unable to let go of each other’s hands across the table when Magnus realised something. “What on earth did you threaten Jace with to get him to hold his tongue? You know he can’t keep a secret to save his life,” he asked, looking fondly at his new favourite piece of jewellery, ideas for a ring for Alec already in the back of his mind.

“I didn’t tell them I was doing it until like ten minutes before I got home.” He smirked. “I was also thinking I’d let them stew for a day or so and not tell them the results just yet.”

Magnus stared at him. “I love you.”

Alec grinned and sunshine poured out of his mouth and lit up the whole room. “I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Don't use bandages or duct tape to bind your chest, folks.


End file.
